It was legitimate for the governments of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to move the apex court to modify its order staying the ban on Padmaavat. What is less understandable, and not excusable, is the outbreak of protest-violence after little effort was made by the central and state governments to curb those invoking a skewed sense of community pride to flay the film.

That silence of governments has only encouraged the Karni Sena to go beyond whipping up passions ~ to the extent of provoking the armed forces: soldiers of the relevant community have been told to boycott food in their official mess one day, refuse to carry their weaponry another….

Advertisement

Is this not short of inciting revolt in the ranks? And a greater crime than what caused charges of sedition to be slapped on so many people for merely expressing opinions contrary to what the government was thinking? It would be worth recalling that the trigger for imposing the Emergency in 1975 was the call from Jayaprakash Narayan to the police forces not to obey “illegal orders”~ decidedly a more benign call than what the Shree Rajput Karni Sena president, Mahipal Singh Makrana, issued in Jaipur on Friday.

There is something dangerous about that appeal: “The honour and dignity of their (soldiers’) sisters is at stake, and they should show their solidarity and boycott one day’s mess food, and if the government did not listen they should lay down their arms for a day…” The Indian jawan is a simple, apolitical fellow: “the salt of the earth” is how the legendary Cariappa once hailed him.

That innocent simplicity can be mischievously exploited ~ pride is an integral part of the military ethos and the Karni Sena’s talking of the honour and dignity of the sisters of Kshatriya soldiers is sinisterly calculated at striking an emotional chord.

The Army leadership must be on the alert, particularly in the Rajput and Rajputana Rifles regimental centres, lest a bid to spread the “poison” there affects some of the young recruits. It would be irresponsible for officers at those centres, and in all units, to ignore the potential for trouble, there can be no forgetting what happened after Operation Bluestat in 1984.

The situation poses an onerous challenge for the defence minister, she will be required to display her management skills because sadly neither the home minister nor the minister for information and broadcasting took early action to prevent the opposition to the film from snowballing thus and by their silence let mob rule override the law. “Appeasement” is a charge that the BJP has frequently levelled against Congress-led governments, accusing them of sacrificing good governance to pander to the wishes of the minority community. The wheel has turned full circle, the shoe is on the other foot. And that shoe pinches ~ even the military could be made to “feel it”.